Bhumkal Bastar

Is the Development in tribal areas for the tribal or is it a way of colonization of tribal areas by the the affluent non-tribal?

2012-01-11T17:58:00.002+05:30

During my past few visits to Bastar I feel that what all that is happening in the name of development is only adversely affecting the tribal culture and tradition but benefiting the outsiders who have been waiting for such opportunities to make their fortunes.

Earlier only teenage boys and girls used to migrate for work but now even elders are feeling suffocated in their villages because of outside influence and are leaving in the name working far away from their homes,some of them never ever to come back.Either they get lost in the big cities or die of frustration. Is this the price the original inhabitants have to pay for the so called development policies of the State and Central Government?

In the villages where CRPF and other forces have their Camps are the worst affected.Other than living under constant fear of being picked up by the forces being falsely accused as naxal-sympathizer some young boys and girls are even turning mad because of this forceful interference in their peaceful lives in the name of development.Whose development I guess?

Now in Chhattisgarh 9 new Districts are being formed in the name of development.I wonder how many farmers and tribal will have to do away with their lands to make way for Government and Corporates?Is it government ploy to denotify certain schedule 5 areas so that their so called development projects can come up leaving locals working as laborer in their factory and offices?

Today all national channels are talking of Jarwa Tribes of Andaman Island as to how they are being used as Human-Safari for tourist.I request all front line media and press to visit tribal areas of Chhattisgarh especially Bastar where other than Human-Safari one will find how tribal are working as bonded labour,sex slaves etc. and how many are languishing in jails because our forces feel that all tribal are farmers in the day and naxalite in the night and how many lives were lost because of Salwa Judum?

Is this development or exploitation?

Ravana worshipped on Dussehra in Madhya Pradesh!

2011-10-06T15:52:00.001+05:30

BHOPAL: They don't regard Ravana as a negative figure. On the contrary, some people in four Madhya Pradesh districts worship Hindu god Rama's arch rival on Dussehra when all across his effigies are burnt to mark the victory of good over evil.

In some places of Vidisha, Mandsuar, Ratlam and Indore districts, the effigy of Ravana is not burnt but the people welcome the 10-headed demon king.

full story

Jharkhand's anti-Maoist push drives tuskers wild

2011-09-19T08:26:00.002+05:30

Anti-Maoist operations in Jharkhand have caused a herd of elephants to migrate from Saranda jungle, bordering the districts of West Singhbhum and Simdega, and damage standing crops and houses in nearby settlements.

'These elephants are running amok in villages and damaging standing crops and houses,' Ranchi circle conservator K.N. Thakur told IANS. 'Villagers are somehow protecting their lives.'

There are 18 elephants in the rampaging herd and villagers are angry at the damage. 'They have threatened to set the forest office on fire,' Thakur said. 'Forest officials have assured them that they would call experts and train them on how to drive the rampaging herd away.'

Link - http://www.kolkatanews.net/story/845036

Chhattisgarh coal blocks a test case for acquiring tribal lands

2011-09-19T08:13:00.002+05:30

MoEF grants forest clearance, but FRA, PESA compliance still needed

This wedding season, anxious grooms from Parsa and Ghatburra, two villages in Chhattisgarh’s Surguja district, were offered financial assistance from an unlikely source. Adani Mining Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Ltd, was handing out loans to all those who could prove that the money would be spent on marriage arrangements.

“A company official took us to the bank, opened accounts in our names, and gave us cheques of Rs. 20,000 each. He then took us to the tehsildar and made us sign an agreement,” said Mohar Sai, a resident of Parsa, who said he knew of about 20 villagers who had taken such loans.

Mr. Sai said that in loan agreements, made out on stamp paper in the presence of the tehsildar, villagers promised to repay the company from money received when their lands in Parsa East and Kente Basan were acquired by the district administration and turned into a coalmine operated by Adani Mining.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2465047.ece

Common Issues but different point of views..........

2011-04-16T15:51:00.005+05:30

Have to start this post analysing my recent visit to Bastar...... How much Bastar and the people residing there have changed,one can understand when you are native from a small village of Bastar and have spent memorable vacations during school holidays there. Once a small village is now abuzz with talk of developlment since CRPF are using the School builidings and contructing few more in the School Campus,the land which my Grand Father had given for starting School so that the poor tribal boys and girl can get education. I wonder what kind of psycological affect these childrens must be having living behind barbed wires and studying under constant watch by the gun-totting CRPF people. Why can't the police force have their camps away from the human habitants especially naive childrens?That too when Supreme Court has ordered all forces to leave School campuses. to be continued.....

Bhumkal- 10th feb,1910

2011-02-10T23:03:00.001+05:30

The Bhumkal rebellion took place in the year 1910 in and around the present Indian state of Chhattisgarh. It is among the most vigorous and widespread rebellion in India. Thus it is one of the most important protest movements till date.

Out of the eighty-four parganas of the district of Batsar, the Bhumkal rebellion was spread in almost forty-six of them. According to most of the historians the origin of the Bhumkal protest movement was rooted in the previous rebellious movements that took place in this region. It was a movement based in the age-old struggle of the tribal people of Batsar to protect and preserve their tradition, culture and customs. This was linked to their demand of being allowed to retain their traditional way of life and livelihood. The revolt of the tribal people of Batsar was to reassert their rights on the forests and other natural resources of this area. It is because all their customs, culture and economic activities depended on their basic belief about the relation between man and nature.

Thus the sudden dispossession of the forestland when in 1908 they were declared to be reserved zones initiated the Bhumkal rebellion. This tribal struggle in Batsar started taking a more vigorous shape when the contractors became the only people to be allowed to take wood and timber from the local forests for making railway sleepers. This decision of the government hampered the different economic activities that were traditionally practiced by the tribal communities in Batsar. Apart from this there were many other issues that gave rise to the vigorous Bhumkal rebellion in Batsar.

Can information from Wikileaks be downloaded?

2010-12-08T07:32:00.000+05:30

Dear Blogger Friends,

Is it possible to download information from Wikileaks
Which can be put on our blogs?

Do we have in India any site which works on the
Same lines as Wikileaks?

Regards,
Koya
savebastar@ymail.com

Despite Scandals, Indian Mining Bosses Thrive.............

2010-08-20T22:03:00.002+05:30

BELLARY, India — Janardhana Reddy insists he is not a king. No, no, no, he protested, as a servant trotted across the courtyard to deliver a cup of cooled water. Men with machine guns stood outside. An architect waited to discuss the new mansion, while another man hovered nearby, sitting in the grass.

FULL STORY

angarh Shyam committed suicide nine years ago. Now, as his clan pushes his legacy, Gond art is becoming a rage abroad

2010-07-30T22:39:00.002+05:30

ON 2 JULY 2001, on the Japanese island of Honshu, Jangarh Singh Shyam hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his room. He had been living at the Mithila Museum on an arts residency. He was 37. Two worlds mourned Jangarh — artists and central India’s Gond community. The rest of us barely noticed the passing of the prodigious Adivasi artist who had made Paris gasp. Nine years later, few of us still have a sense of how much Jangarh’s life and death has wrought.

On the morning of 12 July 2010, Mayank Shyam steps out of his black Santro and waits for his mother Nankusia to emerge in her best sari. The 24-year-old had driven 12 hours from Bhopal to Patangarh village the previous week. Patangarh is the bright green village in the hills of eastern Madhya Pradesh, where his father Jangarh Shyam came from. Several admirers have gathered here to unveil a bust of Jangarh.

FULL STORY

Govt considers 26% equity for tribals in mines

2010-07-23T22:44:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: In a bid to deplete the reservoir of antagonism in the central Indian tribal belt that feeds the Naxalite cadre, the government is engaged in fast-paced discussions to provide 26% equity in mining entities to the affected people, mostly tribals, where excavation of minerals takes place.

The Group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee met on Thursday to discuss the proposed Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act but the debate about whether the affected people should be provided shares in the company or directly provided a share in the annual revenues from the company without getting embroiled in distributing equity remained unresolved.

FULL STORY

8 Indian states have more poor than 26 poorest African nations

2010-07-13T21:45:00.001+05:30

LONDON: Acute poverty prevails in eight Indian states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, together accounting for more poor people than in the 26 poorest African nations combined, a new 'multidimensional' measure of global poverty has said.

The new measure, called the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), was developed and applied by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative with UNDP support.

It will be featured in the forthcoming 20 th anniversary edition of the UNDP Human Development Report.

An analysis by MPI creators reveals that there are more 'MPI poor' people in eight Indian states (421 million in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal) than in the 26 poorest African countries combined (410 million).

Full Story

Rape, torture by state forces in Naxal heartland?

2010-07-13T21:42:00.002+05:30

Jhargram, (West Bengal): Rape, arson and torture are the allegations villagers here in West Bengal are making against state police. The government says it's looking into the allegations.

But it's a blow to a state police force which claims it is reaching out to the villagers as part of its battle against the Naxals in the state.

A 50-year old woman from Sonamukhi village, 15 kilometers from Jhargram town, alleges she was raped by the joint forces on the 30th of June. At least six women from this village have undergone medical tests at the Jhargram hospital after they alleged rape by the paramilitary forces. The reports are yet to come. But the women of Sonamukhi allege rape and torture during a joint forces raid in search of suspected Maoists.

Full Story

After Naxal attacks, CRPF desires to withdraw from Bastar...

2010-07-07T22:58:00.002+05:30

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has expressed a desire to withdraw from all interior locations of the worst-hit Naxal area of Bastar in Chattisgarh, a move opposed by the state police. Official sources, who referred to this wish by CRPF, said the para-military force has also approached Chhattisgarh.....

Full Story-Hindustan Times

Operation in W Midnapore: Should bodies be carried like cattle

2010-06-23T22:12:00.001+05:30

Video Link

Bhopal Gas Tragedy and Corporate Silence on today's verdict by the Supreme Court And Raman, Jairam in mining war...........

2010-06-07T22:51:00.002+05:30

RAIPUR: A tussle between the Chhattisgarh government and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) over an elephant reserve has reached the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). And the dispute is emblematic of the way the richly forested state is hurtling to get the developed tag by shaving off its pristine tree cover.

Since 2004, the Chhattisgarh government has signed 102 memorandum of understandings (MOUs) with industrial houses for production of steel, sponge iron, power, cement and aluminium. The government claims to have brought Rs 1,65,000- crore investment to the state.

Full Story

Behind the Lies-Vedanta's PR offensive

2010-03-01T17:14:00.002+05:30

Instead of actually talking to the Dongria Kondh about its plans, Vedanta Resources, together with its PR company Finsbury and ‘corporate social responsibility’ consultancy CO3, has launched a sustained PR offensive against the tribe’s efforts to stop the mine. Much of this material has been manipulative; some has been completely untrue. Here we expose some of the claims made by Vedanta and others.

FULL STORY

OTHER STORIES

Ramesh to review Posco, Vedanta clearances

Hunting Adivasis In Mineral Corridor - By Gladson Dungdung

2010-02-27T10:31:00.002+05:30

“Naxalites are our stray brothers and sisters therefore we will address the issues of Naxalism through dialogues”. These are the holy words of Jharkhand Chief Minister Sibu Soren, who repeatedly told us even after swearing in as the guard of the state for 3rd time. However, the unbearable pressure from the central government and the corporate houses made him completely helpless. Consequently, he took u turn and attended a special meeting with our ‘Corporate Home Minister’ P. Chidambaram in Delhi on January 27th on the issue of so-called ‘Operation Green Hunt’. After his return from Delhi, he started dancing in different tune, saying, operation green hunt will be started if the Maoists do not abjure violence.

FULL STORY

Indian Budget 2010-11: Strapped And Shackled By The Past

2010-02-27T09:41:00.000+05:30

The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is no imposter like his precedessor. But he, without soft options today, shackled by the recent past of Finance Ministry stewardship, has proposed a Budget 2010-11 which has failed to address the core issues of reducing public debt, curb the dangerously high fiscal deficit[ even the claimed target for 2010-11 of 5.5 per cent is too high, and will represent a huge diversion of funds with public sector banks away from private sector investment], and introduce innovation into the ailing industries such as Textiles, Food Processing, Power Generation and Distribution. Hence, despite his heroic effort to put together a promising Budget, he has at best produced a damp squib for financial reforms..

FULL STORY

A Shiver Runs Through It

2010-02-16T12:59:00.002+05:30

Tribhuvan Tiwari

A ready mask Throughout the interview, Badru, commander for the Durba area, sat with his back to the camera. The woman and other subordinates took positions behind trees to ward off any intrusions. Women comprise almost half the armed contingents.

bastar

A Shiver Runs Through It

The innocent tribal stands hapless in the crossfire between the State and the Maoists, losing life and livelihood in a war without end

Smita Gupta

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Also In This Story

Chhattisgarh

Maoist-related fatalities: 2005-2009

According to state police, however,

66 Maoists killed in 2008,
113 in 2009;
143 civilian deaths attributed to Naxal violence in 2008,
116 in 2009.

According to villagers, around 40 civilians (which would include what the government describes as suspected Maoists/Maoist sympathisers) are killed a week in the area.

...And The Cool Of Ash

Almost haven The setting is idyllic in the lengthening shadows, but the calm in Gorgondarengapur is quite recent. Like many others, this woman and child had fled to Andhra Pradesh fearing the Salwa Judum. They returned only a few weeks ago.

We fly into Raipur, the advice given by civil rights activists ringing in our ears: be careful which hotel you check into, since most report any arrivals—especially of journalists—to the local police. It’ll be very hard to get into the conflict zone in Bastar without being followed, harassed and thrown out by the Special Police Officers (SPOs). Our contact in Dantewada district—Ground Zero of the war being fought between the State and the Maoists—advises us to take the overnight sleeper bus, rather than a car, to Kirandul.

As we weigh our options, we decide to visit a prosperous Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra (an RSS affiliate) leader I have met before in Raipur. It’s a happy choice: within minutes, his living room fills up with local politicos-cum-businessmen, interestingly a cross-party mix. A Congress municipal councillor, who runs a bus service among other things, says private business is prospering in all the Maoist-affected districts. What about the Maoists, the class enemies of big business? He laughs. “If the government wants,” he says, “the Maoists can be finished off very quickly. But no one wants that—neither the BJP nor the Congress. Go and see for yourself. And the traders and businessmen who live there are so happily ensconced there that they don’t want to leave.” I turn to our host: he nods in agreement, as does everyone in the room. Most businessmen in the state, they say, pay their “taxes” to the Maoists and, in return, are permitted to function unmolested. Later, in Jagdalpur, Pawan Dubey, editor of two local papers, confirms this. “Most businessmen,” he tells us, “have patrons among the state ministers, getting contracts, for instance, for building roads under the government’s Gram Sadak Yojana in Bastar, roads that are never built—so it’s a cosy arrangement.” CPI (Maoist) politburo member Kishenji confirmed as much in an interview last year—that the Maoists regularly collect taxes from “the corporates and the big bourgeoisie”.

full story

Tribhuvan Tiwari

bastar

A Shiver Runs Through It

The innocent tribal stands hapless in the crossfire between the State and the Maoists, losing life and livelihood in a war without end

Smita Gupta

PRINT	SHARE	COMMENTS

Also In This Story

Chhattisgarh

Maoist-related fatalities: 2005-2009

According to state police, however,

66 Maoists killed in 2008,
113 in 2009;
143 civilian deaths attributed to Naxal violence in 2008,
116 in 2009.

According to villagers, around 40 civilians (which would include what the government describes as suspected Maoists/Maoist sympathisers) are killed a week in the area.

...And The Cool Of Ash

A Khaki Shudra To Our New Brahmins

2010-02-16T12:57:00.000+05:30

I’m aware that I suffer from multiple handicaps as I stand to defend myself and my police force for planning and executing ‘Operation Green Hunt’ against the Maoist insurgents in the dense jungles of Bastar. I’m acutely aware of the truth of a metaphor I flippantly coined many years ago—that in India’s transformed caste system of today, a policeman is a Shudra, someone to be ridiculed, shouted at, spat upon. Over the years, I have expanded the Shudra label to include writers, poets, intellectuals, journalists and teachers from mofussil towns—what I mean is, those who essentially know and think in Hindi or other regional languages of India. And, by extension of that metaphor, who are the Brahmins? The Anglophile Indians are the Brahmins—those who write and think in English, those who teach in the colleges of Delhi and other big cities. And I, unfortunately being a Hindi poet, can only claim to be a counterfeit poet. Therefore, as policeman and Hindi poet, I’m a double Shudra.

FULL STORY

Vedanta, Avatar And The Tribal Activists

2010-02-12T16:37:00.000+05:30

The company has borne the brunt of a sustained campaign by U.K.-based tribal rights group Survival International, that has accused it of damaging the livelihood and environment of the 8,000-strong Dongria Kondh tribe, who live in the remote Niyamgiri Hills of India’s eastern province, Orissa.

Its latest offensive is an ad in Variety magazine appealing to James Cameron, director of blockbuster movie Avatar, to pitch in for the Dongria Kondh, as the film’s fictional Na’vi share a lot in common with the Dongri Kondh.

Amnesty has now joined the chorus of protests against Vedanta, putting a spotlight on one of India’s biggest metals and mining companies.

FULL STORY

The Church of England has disinvested from the controversial mining company, Vedanta Resources

2010-02-07T18:48:00.001+05:30

The Church of England has disinvested from the controversial mining company, Vedanta Resources, after sustained pressure from campaigners, including many Christian groups.

The Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board announced today (5 February) that they have sold their shares in the mining company on the advice of the Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG).

As a result, none of the three national investing bodies of the Church of England now hold shares in the company.

FULL STORY

Tribals non-entities in their own jatara

2010-02-03T09:56:00.000+05:30

Though the jatara has gained prominence in the last 20 years, ironically a mere 5-10 per cent of tribals take part in the festival. “This reflects the suppression of tribals by non-tribals which has been the case since the time of Kakatiya dynasty,’’ asserts historian V L Narasimha Rao. In this jatara, which ended on Saturday, only five lakh tribals attended (the crowd rush swelled to 90 lakhs this time around).

While the government goes to town about the cultural significance of the jatara, the increasing numbers of non-tribals, politicians, actors and techies turning up for the fair does not bode well, opine professors and experts. “It has become a ‘jalsa jatara.’ It’s appalling that no effort is being made to protect age-old customs, culture and art forms of the Girijans,’’ says Prof A Seetaram Naik of Kakatiya University.

FULL STORY

‘Avatar is real’, say tribal people

2010-01-28T12:03:00.001+05:30

Following the film ‘Avatar’’s win at the Golden Globes, tribal people have claimed that the film tells the real story of their lives today.

A Penan man from Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, told Survival, ‘The Penan people cannot live without the rainforest. The forest looks after us, and we look after it. We understand the plants and the animals because we have lived here for many, many years, since the time of our ancestors.

FULL STORY

Channel 4 investigates Bastar..........

2010-01-25T21:00:00.002+05:30

While India's own media does not care about it's own people, it is heartening to see that Channel 4 spent a month to bring out this report. The footage is disturbing if you are a sensitive person. But that is what is happening in the beautiful state of Chhattisgarh.

FULL STORY

Silencing tribal voices

2010-01-08T09:30:00.001+05:30

Operation Green Hunt is finally put into full gear; the Union home minister is asked to stay away from its area of operation; and a Gandhian begins a hunger strike at its centre. What do these recent developments imply?

First, the harsh truth — the Centre’s, and consequently the media’s, near-silence all through the last month on its heavily tom-tommed proposed armed offensive against the Maoists, was no rethink. The war cries had boomeranged; it made more sense to keep quiet, let the protests fizzle out, and go ahead with it. It was foolish anyway, to have thought that the outrage of intellectuals (and a few retired security men) could outweigh the exciting prospect of big business finally moving in on all those riches buried under the Dandakaranya forests. As planned, the moment the Jharkhand elections got over, the offensive began. But why is the Union home minister, the man behind it, being asked to stay away? That too by the governor of the State at its epicentre?

FULL STORY

'Public sector created Chhattisgarh's middle class'

2010-01-04T21:04:00.000+05:30

What news of the offensive?
When Operation Green Hunt began in September, notice under Section 95 of the CrPC (which includes sedition) was served on newspapers for publishing the Maoists' press releases, which said that the only persons to have been killed by the security forces were ordinary Adivasis. Over 100 journalists demonstrated in Jagdalpur saying that in a conflict situation, we can't print only police handouts. Journalists have been arrested under the State's Special Security Act. For us, this new offensive is only an intensification of the drive going on since 2005, to clear villages to facilitate a corporate land grab, in the name of fighting insurgency.

FULL INTERVIEW

India's Poverty Line Is Actually A Starvation Line

2010-01-04T21:02:00.000+05:30

There is something terribly wrong with growth economics. After all, 18 years after India ushered in economic liberalisation, the promise of high growth to reduce poverty and hunger, has not worked. In fact, it has gone the other way around: the more the economic growth, the higher is the resulting poverty.

A report by an expert group headed by Suresh Tendulkar, formerly chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, now estimates poverty at 37.2 per cent, an increase of roughly 10 per cent over the earlier estimates of 27.5 per cent in 2004-05. This means, an additional 110 million people have slipped below the poverty line in just four years.

FULL STORY

After nearlly 5 years of "Salwa Judum",Tata deny sponsering this movement against the innocent Tribal...

2009-12-17T09:04:00.002+05:30

Tata Steel says report not being factual
Tata Steel, which has been named by the land reforms committee in the context of land acquisition against the wishes of people, has complained to the ministry of rural development that the report has levelled false accusations against the company.

“The report accuses us of being the supporter and the first financier of Salwa Judum, the so-called anti-Naxalite movement of the people of the area. We would like to clarify here that the Salwa Judum movement was already operational before we signed an MOU with the State government for setting up the steel plant in the region. We emphatically declare that we have never supported or financed Salwa Judum or any such organization. We are not connected with them in any way.’’

“For the displaced families of Kalinganagar (Orissa), we have gone beyond the stipulations of R&R policy to give long-term assurance for better quality of life and this has led to the formation of concept of ‘Tata Steel Parivar’ - Tata Steel’s own R&R programme. We are proud to say that we are the only company to have implemented such a benevolent initiative for the rehabilitation of the displaced villagers. This unique initiative, apart from ensuring improvement in quality of life, is also giving importance to the cultural and emotional requirements of the displaced tribals. Till date, nearly 900 families have been rehabilitated and their progress is monitored closely. We shall be implementing Tata Steel Parivar at other greenfield projects of Chattisgarh & Jharkhand,’’ says the rejoinder.

FULL STORY

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor

2009-12-17T08:48:00.001+05:30

Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

FULL STORY

India's answer to Global Warming..........

2009-12-06T11:29:00.002+05:30

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tejendra/sets/72157622662915531/show/

After watching the above link rest assured that if a PSU like NMDC can destroy the lives of tribal of 200 villages by polluting their river just imagine what Tata will do to Indravati river or Essar once their projects take off in Bastar,Chhattisgarh.

If India has to fight Global Warming all they have to do is cancel all the SEZs.....but who will do it is the billion dollar question....

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Could have been a Naxalite himself.....

2009-11-30T19:44:00.002+05:30

मनमोहन सिंह जब से देश के प्रधानमंत्री बनें है तब से वे इस बात को कई बार दोहरा चुके हैं कि नक्सलवाद देश के लिए सबसे बड़ा खतरा है. साठ के दशक के अर्थशास्त्री मनमोहन सिह भी शिक्षण संस्थानों में डिग्री लेने वाले देश के दूसरे बुद्धिजीवियों की तरह पहले नक्सलवाद के प्रति सहानुभूति रखने वालों में रहे हैं.

FULL STORY

source- raviwar.com

Narayanpatna Shootout

2009-11-30T19:40:00.000+05:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8N5-ktURVk

“How can you do this to your own people?”- Forces on rampage in South Bastar

2009-11-30T19:34:00.001+05:30

On the 9^th of November, 2009, security forces had raided the village of Tatemargu of Konta Block, Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.

Once news of the approaching forces reached the village, all the villagers ran into the jungle with what they could carry. They scattered in all directions and only returned once they got news that the security forces had left their village. They returned to find burning homes and distraught villagers who were taken into custody by the security forces, and then released in the village itself. They told the rest of the villagers their stories and identified those who was taken away. Many took their time to return from the jungle. And only once all the villagers were back and reunited, did they begin to piece together what had happened – and who was missing.

FULL STORY WITH PHOTOS

source- moonchasing.wordpress.com

When the state declares war on the people - gopal menon

2009-11-17T22:39:00.001+05:30

watch the video on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rygJzzutBOg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Kvl3e1MlM&feature=related

New Arundhati Roy interview on Al-Jazeera‏

2009-11-10T21:20:00.001+05:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmIaX7W-BFU

A silent hunt for dissent

2009-11-10T20:32:00.001+05:30

10 am, October 12 — Jagdalpur, Bastar district headquarters town in Chhattisgarh, looks like a ghost town. Large areas around the collector’s office have been cordoned off. Around 50 tribals sit in a hall waiting for a public hearing of the environmental impact assessment report of Tata Steel’s proposed Rs 10,000-crore greenfield steel project in the district’s Lohandiguda block.It’s noon by the time officials of the district administration and Tata Steel arrive. Sashi Bhushan Prasad, head of Tata’s environmental division, is presenting the report. His start is dramatic: “One hundred and twenty-five years ago, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata had a dream for a village in Jharkhand, and that is Jamshedpur. It was many times worse than our Bastar.”

FULL STORY

A military solution will destroy us : Arundhati Roy

2009-10-30T20:29:00.002+05:30

VIDEO OF THE INTERVIEW

WRITTEN INTERVIEW

Operation Saffron Hunt?

2009-10-26T09:02:00.001+05:30

As the UPA government embarks on its ‘Operation Green Hunt’ against the Maoists maybe what it should really be carrying out is an ‘Operation Saffron Hunt’ - against Hindu extremists who pose a far greater threat to the internal security of India.

Truth is, despite all the official and media hype about the spread of Maoists and their dramatic attacks against state forces in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and parts of West Bengal, they are simply no match for what the shadowy network Hindu fundamentalists have been doing or are capable of doing.

FULL STORY

‘Do We Want Our Troops To Get Stuck Like The Americans In Afghanistan?’

2009-10-26T08:49:00.000+05:30

HE WILL always be referred to as the man who brought peace to Punjab; as the security strategist who wiped out terrorism in the border state a few years after it had claimed the life of Indira Gandhi, the country’s serving prime minister. Few thought they would see a solution to the escalating Punjab insurgency till Gill pulled it off. After spending close to 25 years — and earning his spurs — in the insurgency-ridden state of Assam, he was brought to Punjab in 1984. Gill got down to the task of dealing with the khadkus (terrorists) soon after Operation Blue Star, an ill-advised armoured attack on the Golden Temple — the most revered Sikh shrine — that only added to the ranks of the AK-47 brigade.

FULL INTERVIEW

Govt at war with Naxals to aid MNCs: Arundhati

2009-10-23T17:15:00.001+05:30

New Delhi: It was an evening of an explosive confession on CNN-IBN. Naxal leader Kishenji has for the first time claimed responsibility for the beheading of Jharkhand police officer Francis Induvar two weeks ago. Even more chilling are his threats that they will kill again on a day when Naxals attacked another police station in West Midnapore on Tuesday. The question that was being asked on CNN-IBN's India At 9 was: Is it possible for the Government and Naxals to come to the dialogue table? To try and answer the question on the panel of experts were writer and activist Arundhati Roy and Jharkhand-based activist Gladson Dungdung.

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Two million slum children die every year as India booms

2009-10-07T17:15:00.001+05:30

Child mortality rates have doubled in India's slums. In Rajasthan, Surma lost her son Parmesh to easily preventable diarrhoea at only four years old. Source: Save the Children.

India's growing status as an economic superpower is masking a failure to stem a shocking rate of infant deaths among its poorest people.

Nearly two million children under five die every year in India – one every 15 seconds – the highest number anywhere in the world. More than half die in the month after birth and 400,000 in their first 24 hours.

FULL STORY

Al Jazeera debate on the government's proposed military offensive

2009-10-04T08:40:00.001+05:30

Watch the Video

Jatland in Chhattisgarh

2009-09-30T16:37:00.001+05:30

It’s never happened before. Settlers from one state have taken over large parts of another’s farmland, altering the farm economy, power equations and social setup.

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In a Hurry, Going Nowhere- From Outlook Magazine

2009-09-30T16:26:00.003+05:30

The current anti-Naxalite operations, reflecting little by way of plan or purpose, are at best a faith in demonstrative violence, based on the hope that this will cow down the enemy. This is not a calculus of war; it is sheer fantasy.

Ajai Sahni

FULL STORY

A very Indian insurgency

2009-09-18T16:11:00.001+05:30

The greatest militant threat facing India comes not from the Islamists who attacked Mumbai but Naxalite Maoist rebels.

Last November's fedayeen-style attacks on Mumbai may have reminded the world that India was not immune to terrorism. But few outside the subcontinent are aware that the greatest source of militancy in this diverse country comes not from Islamists but Maoists.

Insurgencies by Naxalites (named after Naxalbari, a town in West Bengal where rural peasants took up arms against oppressive local landowners in 1967) have proliferated over a vast beltway stretching from the forests of Bengal in the north to Kerala in the south.

Astonishingly, there is believed to be a Naxalite presence in one-third of the Indian landmass, or 16 of India's 28 states. Authorities estimate that one-fifth of the nation's forests are under Naxalite control.

FULL STORY

The Real Divide in Bastar

2009-08-20T08:29:00.001+05:30

Gautam Navlakha , Ashish Gupta

The large rally-cum-publicmeeting of adivasi peasants, organised by the Bastar Sambhag Kisan Sangharsh Samiti on 1 June in Jagdalpur, opposing the construction of the Bodh Ghat dam and the privatisation of mines and river water resources was an eye-opener. In the savage war for “development” in Bastar, the wrath of the people is reserved for the state, which for decades treated them as less than human and is now busy promoting rapacious capitalism.

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Eye on Bengal, Mamata wants Art 355 in Naxal areas

2009-08-15T09:29:00.001+05:30

Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, is pressing the government to use Article 355 of the Constitution and take over “law and order and development” in the Naxal infested regions of the country. Though its primary aim is to get its writ running in the Maoist infested regions of West Bengal, it is attempting not to make it appear so by underlining that it should be applied across the country to tackle the rebels effectively.

The TMC further wants that the Central intervention should be monitored by a Union Minister from the state, which would, in effect, empower members of the party in the government to take over.

Interestingly, the demand comes close on the heels of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi making a similar demand regarding Central intervention in Bundelkhand — a region across Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It led to protests from both UP and MP and constitutional experts termed it impractical, referring to Centre-state relations.

full story

Indian natural herb Tulsi to fight back swine flu

2009-08-13T09:52:00.003+05:30

Ayurveda, the traditional 'science of life', has a remedy for diseases when every other stream of medicine fails. Now, at a time when swine flu is spreading like wildfire across the world, Ayurveda has the remedy in the form of the miraculous herb, the basil leaves commonly known as Tulsi.

Tulsi, the purest and most sublime plant, has been known and worshipped in India for more than five millennia for its remarkable healing properties. Considered as an 'Elixir of Life', this wonder herb has now been claimed to keep the deadly swine flu at bay and help fast recovery in afflicted persons.

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Fake Encounter- Why Tehelka or others don't talk about the thousands of Sanjit's happening daily in Bastar,Chhattisgarh??????

2009-08-03T21:02:00.003+05:30

Sanjit’s body on a stretcher. His family claims he had broken his earlier links with the militants and was leading a normal life.

FULL STORY WITH MORE PICS

CM trying to seperate tribals & Naxals

2009-07-25T09:26:00.001+05:30

Statesman News Service

BHUBANESWAR, 24 JULY: Replying to the debate on demand for grants of the home department in the Assembly today, Mr Patnaik said 3000 more tribal youths from Naxal infested areas will be recruited as Special police force. This will be in addition to the existing 2,100 special police personnel.

The move, besides the one for special recruitment drive by the army for which the CM has requested the defence ministry is aimed at preventing tribal youth being inducted by Maoists.
Mr Patnaik said that steps to open at least one ITI in each block to enhance employability of youths, spending at least Rs 2 lakh per district in tribal areas for sports activities and filling up vacant paramedical staff posts in all schedule areas of the state are part of the plans drawn up by his government.

FULL STORY

Environmentalist protest against Vedanta/Sterlite "Green Award"...

2009-07-21T15:57:00.003+05:30

watch the video of the protest,click on the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0o1PhmTjEQ

Its amazing how the corporate world controls each and everything in this world whether its the government policies or the International Awards for Environment.

Look at Chhattisgarh,first Vedanta/Sterlite owned by Anil Agrawal took control of Balco in Korba and then slowly started occupying vast stretch of forest land and for this they have been served notices by the Government also under public pressure but nothing ever happened.

Infact Chhattisgarh Government has awarded them huge piece of land in Raipur for a cancer hospital.So on one hand Anil Agrawal destroys environment and pollutes cities to produce cancer patients and on the other hand builds a cancer hospital to help his conscience.Amazing work Mr.Agrawal..........

SEZ story: How farmers won against Ambani

2009-07-06T09:54:00.002+05:30

Can you win a grassroots level agitation for your land against a person whose is worth a whopping Rs 196,000 crore (Rs 1,960 billion)?

Yes, you can! At least, in the first round of a long-drawn struggle, farmers of Raigadh, near Mumbai, have won a legal battle for their land against Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man.

FULL STORY

New Salwa Judum strategy is non-cooperation

2009-06-27T09:22:00.001+05:30

Now into its fifth year, controversial anti-Naxalite campaign Salwa Judum is transforming into a “non-cooperation movement” in the tribal Bastar region of Chhattisgarh with its top activists changing strategy from direct conflict to creating awareness among tribals to isolate the rebels. Senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma, a frontline anti-Naxalite campaign leader who stood with the ruling BJP in its fight against the rebels, speaks to Joseph John about the changing face of Salwa Judum.

Salwa Judum observed its fifth foundation day on June 5. For the past two-and-a-half years, there have been virtually no activities like rallies or public meetings on the ground in Bastar. What is the future of this movement?

After serious thought, we have changed the decision on how to go about our campaign against the Maoists. A new strategy has been worked out during the foundation day meetings where it was decided that anti-Naxal campaign activists would visit the villages and make the people aware that they should not extend any cooperation to the Naxalites. We don’t want any direct fight or conflict. We want to create such awareness so that the villagers themselves will request the Maoists with folded hands: “Let us be, leave us to our conditions”. This non-cooperation campaign is in its preliminary stage and is confined to few villages. It will be gradually extend to other Naxalite affected villages.

FULL INTERVIEW

Forest is a curse in Chhattisgarh-Raman Singh(Chhattisgarh C.M.)

2009-05-22T22:44:00.002+05:30

I think the CM of Chhattisgarh Raman Singh has lost his mind after 2 months of running around for the Lok Sabha Elections and still not able to make Advani the Prime Minister.

Making statements like "Forest is a curse for Chhattisgarh" shows the narrow mindedness of these politicians.May be he wanted to say that the tribal of Chhattisgarh are a curse but being the CM doesn't allow him to say that.

People should not be surprised if we get to hear many such remarks by the likes of Raman Singh,Brijmohan Agrawal and others since their roots are not from Chhattisgarh.

So What If We Can't Go Hunting In The Forest?

2009-05-13T17:51:00.006+05:30

A Salwa Judum affected family In Bastar using all their skills to hunt rats,a delicacy amongst the Gond-Tribes.

I keep wondering why does the system keeps disturbing them in the name of development.Whether its Salwa Judum,Industries,Tiger Reserves,Big Dams etc. ,they are the one who are the worst affected.

Why can't we just leave them alone????

Stigma in Accepting an Adivasi name?

2009-04-22T22:52:00.001+05:30

FULL STORY

Tribal art of living

2009-04-22T22:25:00.001+05:30

The tribal's disinterest in theological discussion may be frustrating to an academic, but it is typical of the Bastar world view: Be! Just be in the wonderful brotherhood you have been placed in. This brotherhood extends beyond the home, clan, tribe... to include the forests, beasts, birds, rocks, hills, stream and rivers. It is a large undivided family mothered by the Earth. As Grigson puts it, for the Maria tribes in Bastar, children are also one of the crops of the Earth.

If the great approach to life is to be, then life becomes an endless festival. Living becomes a celebration of being. Song and dance spring forth naturally with such a world view.

FULL STORY

1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India

2009-04-17T23:00:00.000+05:30

Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.

The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.

"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine

"Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well."

Mr Sahu lives in a district that recorded 206 farmer suicides last year. Police records for the district add that many deaths occur due to debt and economic distress.

In another village nearby, Beturam Sahu, who owned two acres of land was among those who committed suicide. His crop is yet to be harvested, but his son Lakhnu left to take up a job as a manual labourer.

His family must repay a debt of £400 and the crop this year is poor.

"The crop is so bad this year that we will not even be able to save any seeds," said Lakhnu's friend Santosh. "There were no rains at all."

"That's why Lakhnu left even before harvesting the crop. There is nothing left to harvest in his land this time. He is worried how he will repay these loans."

Bharatendu Prakash, from the Organic Farming Association of India, told the Press Association: "Farmers' suicides are increasing due to a vicious circle created by money lenders. They lure farmers to take money but when the crops fail, they are left with no option other than death."

Mr Prakash added that the government ought to take up the cause of the poor farmers just as they fight for a strong economy.

"Development should be for all. The government blames us for being against development. Forest area is depleting and dams are constructed without proper planning.

All this contributes to dipping water levels. Farmers should be taken into consideration when planning policies," he said.

This article is from The Belfast Telegraph

Photo essay on the FAKE encounter at Kirandool on the 12th of April.

2009-04-15T18:50:00.003+05:30

CLICK HERE

source-Javed

The Hinduised face of Bastar’s tribals

2009-04-14T23:02:00.002+05:30

Tribal women during an election meeting at Jagdalpur in Bastar district in 2008.

For people who worshipped nature and knew only one God (Buddhadev) the new deities are now Shiva, Durga and Hanuman. Chanting of the Gayatri mantra, Hanuman Chalisa and Vande Mataram appears to come naturally to them; and Gayatri Parivar, the Brahma Kumaris, Art of Living and Baba Ramdev are now their inspiration.

Welcome to the new face of tribal culturein Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region: temples on the roadsides, Ramlila on stage and the worship of Ganesha during the annual 10-day Ganesha festival.

FULL STORY

The 1984 massacre of Sikhs and RSS

2009-04-11T10:15:00.003+05:30

It is generally believed that the Congress cadres were behind this genocide. This is true but there were other forces too which actively participated in this massacre and whose role has never been investigated. Those who were witness to the genocide of 1984 were stunned by the swiftness and military precision of the killer marauding gangs (later on witnessed during the Babri mosque demolition, burning alive of Dr. Graham Steins with his two sons and recent pogrom of the Muslims in Gujarat) who went on a burning spree of the innocent Sikhs. This was beyond the capacity of the Congress thugs.

I have an important RSS document which may throw some light on the unhidden aspects of the genocide. It was authored and circulated by a veteran ideologue of the RSS, Nana Deshmukh on November 8, 1984. Interestingly, this document was published in the Hindi Weekly Pratipaksh edited by George Fernandes (Defence Minister of India 1999-2004, and presently a great pal of the RSS) in its edition of November 25, 1984 titled ‘Indira Congress-RSS collusion’ with the following editorial comment:

“The author of the following document is known as an ideologue and policy formulator of the RSS. After the killing of Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi) he distributed this document among prominent politicians. It has a historical significance that is why we have decided to publish it, violating policy of our Weekly. This document highlights the new affinities developing between the Indira Congress and the RSS. We produce here the Hindi translation of the document.”

This document may help in unmasking the whole lot of criminals involved in the massacre of innocent Sikhs who had nothing to do with the killing of Indira Gandhi. This document may also throw light on where the cadres came from, who meticulously organized the killing of Sikhs. Nana Deshmukh in this document is seen outlining the justification of the massacre of the Sikh community in 1984. According to him the massacre of Sikhs was not the handiwork of any group or anti-social elements but the result of a genuine feeling of anger among Hindus of India.

This document also shows the true degenerated and fascist attitude of the RSS towards all the minorities of India. The RSS has been arguing that they are against Muslims and Christians because they are the followers of foreign religions. Here we find them justifying the butchering of Sikhs who according to their own categorization happened to be the followers of an indigenous religion.

The RSS often poses as a firm believer in Hindu-Sikh unity. But in this document we will hear from the horse’s mouth that the RSS like the then Congress leadership, believed that the massacre of the innocent Sikhs was justified. Nana Deshmukh in this document is seen outlining the justification of the massacre of the Sikh community in 1984. His defence of the carnage can be summed up as in the following.

1. The massacre of Sikhs was not the handiwork of any group or anti-social elements but the result of a genuine feeling of anger among Hindus of India.

2. Deshmukh did not distinguish the action of the two security personnel of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who happened to be Sikhs, from that of the whole Sikh community. From his document it emerges that the killers of Indira Gandhi were working under some kind of mandate of their community. Hence attacks on Sikhs were justified.

3. Sikhs themselves invited these attacks, thus advancing the Congress theory of justifying the massacre of the Sikhs.

4. He glorified the ‘Operation Blue Star’ and described any opposition to it as anti-national. When Sikhs were being killed in thousands he was warning the country of Sikh extremism, thus offering ideological defense of those killings.

5. It was Sikh community as a whole which was responsible for violence in Punjab.

6. Sikhs should have done nothing in self-defence but showed patience and tolerance against the killer mobs.

7. These were Sikh intellectuals and not killer mobs which were responsible for the massacre. They had turned Sikhs into a militant community, cutting them off from their Hindu roots, thus inviting attacks from the nationalist Indians. Interestingly, Deshmukh would not mind having militant Hindus. Moreover, he treated all Sikhs as part of the same gang and defended attacks on them as a reaction of the nationalist Hindus.

8. He described Indira Gandhi as the only leader who could keep the country united and on the killing of such a great leader such killings could not be avoided.

9. Rajiv Gandhi who succeeded Mrs. Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India and justified the nation- wide killings of Sikhs by saying, “When a huge tree falls there are always tremors felt”, was lauded and blessed by Nana Deshmukh at the end of the document.

10. Shockingly, the massacre of Sikhs was being equated with the attacks on the RSS cadres after the killing of Gandhiji and we find Deshmukh advising Sikhs to suffer silently. Everybody knows that the killing of Gandhiji was inspired by the RSS and the Hindutva Ideology whereas the common innocent Sikhs had nothing to do with the murder of Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

11. There was not a single sentence in the Deshmukh document demanding, from the then Congress Government at the Centre, remedial measures for controlling the violence against the minority community. Mind this, that Deshmukh circulated this document on November 8, 1984, and from October 31 to this date Sikhs were left alone to face the killing gangs. In fact November 5-10 was the period when the maximum killings of Sikhs took place. Deshmukh was just not bothered about all this.

Deshmukh document did not happen in isolation. It represented the real RSS attitude towards Sikh genocide of 1984. The RSS is very fond of circulating publicity material, especially photographs of its khaki shorts- clad cadres doing social work. For the 1984 violence they have none. In fact, Deshmukh’s article also made no mention of the RSS cadres going to the rescue of Sikhs under siege. This shows up the real intentions of the RSS during the genocide.

There is not a single sentence in the Deshmukh document demanding, from the then Congress Government at the Centre, remedial measures for controlling the violence against the minority community. Importantly, Deshmukh circulated this document on November 8, 1984, and from October 31 to this date Sikhs were left alone to face the killing gangs. George Fernandes while making this document public in 1984 wrote that it showed ‘Indira Congress-RSS collusion’. Nanavati Commission must investigate whether this collusion was confined to political sphere or went beyond to killing fields.
Shamsul Islam

The Deshmukh document is reproduced below. It is translated here from Hindi
MOMENTS OF SOUL SEARCHING
Indira Gandhi ultimately did secure a permanent place at the doorstep of history as a great martyr. With her dynamism borne out of her fearlessness and dexterity, she was able to take the country forward like a colossus for over a decade and was able to build an opinion that she alone understood the realities of the country, that she alone had the ability to run the decadent political system of our corrupt and divided society, and probably that she alone could keep the country united. She was a great lady and her death as a brave leader had added to her greatness. She was killed by a person in whom she kept faith despite several complaints. Such an influential and busy personality was killed by a person who had the duty to protect her person. This act came as a blow not only to her admirers in the country and the world but also her critics. This cowardly and treacherous act of killing not only ended the life of a great leader but also killed, in the name of the Panth, the mutual faith of humanity. Explosion of sudden arson and violent hysteria throughout the country was probably a direction-less and improper expression of the hurt, anger and feeling of loss of her followers. Lakhs of her followers used to see her as the only defender, powerful protector, and a symbol of united India. It is a different matter whether this is right or wrong.

For these innocent and uninformed followers, the treacherous murder of Indira Gandhi was the tragic culmination of the poisonous campaign of separatism, antagonism and violence conducted over the previous three years in which hundreds of innocents had to lose their invaluable lives and the sanctity of religious places was destroyed. This campaign assumed an ominous pace after the painful army action in June which, in the eyes of most of the people of the country, had become necessary to protect the sanctity of the religious places. Barring a few exceptions, the Sikh community observed silence for a long time on the barbaric massacres and heinous killings of innocent people, but they condemned the long-pending army action with anger and dangerous explosiveness. The country was stunned at their attitude. The army action was compared to the “gallu ghara” action of Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1762 to desecrate the Harmandir Sahib. Without going into the objectives of the two incidents, Mrs. Gandhi was pushed into the category of Ahmed Shah Abdali. She was termed the enemy of the Sikh panth and big prizes were announced on her head. On the other hand Bhindrawale who was guilty of heinous crimes against humanity in the name of religion was hailed as a martyr. Open display of such feelings in different parts of the country and abroad played a special role in increasing the distrust and alienation between the Sikhs and the rest of Indians. In the background of this distrust and alienation, stunned and bewildered people accepted the validity of the rumours of celebrations by the Sikhs at the heinous murder of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation of the army action. Of these the most hurting explanation was that of Giani Kripal Singh who being the Head Granthi considered himself to be the sole spokesman of the Sikh community. He said that he expressed no sorrow at the death of Indira Gandhi. This statement added fuel to the fire of boiling anger. No immediate and natural condemnation of this despicable statement by an important leader came from responsible Sikh leaders, intellectuals or organization. Therefore the already angered common and unimaginative people took it as correct that the Sikhs celebrated the death of Indira Gandhi. Because of this belief, selfish elements could succeed in making the common people become violent against the hapless Sikhs.

This was a most explosive situation which needed utmost patience and skilful conduct on behalf of our Sikh brothers. I am saying this, being a life member of the RSS, because on January 30, 1948 a Hindu fanatic, who was a Marathi and had no relation with the RSS, rather was a bitter critic of the Sangh, committed unfortunate killing of Mahatma Gandhi. On this occasion we also suffered the sudden eruption of hysteria, loot and atrocities of misdirected people. We ourselves saw how selfish elements who were well acquainted with this incident, deliberately declared a murderer to be a member of the RSS and also spread the rumour that the RSS people were celebrating throughout the country death of Mahatma Gandhi, and thus they succeeded in diverting the love and the feeling of loss and hurt in the hearts of people for Gandhi. Such feelings were spread against Swayamsewaks and their families, particularly in Mahrashtra.

Having gone through such experiences myself, I can understand the strong reaction and feeling of innocent Sikh brothers who became of victims of sudden eruption of people’s violent hysteria. In fact, I would like to condemn in strongest words the inhuman barbarity and cruelty on Sikh brothers in Delhi and elsewhere. I feel proud of all those Hindu neighbours who protected lives and property of troubled Sikh brothers without caring for their lives. Such things one being heard from all over Delhi. These things have practically increased the faith in natural goodness of human behavior and particularly faith in Hindu nature.

I am also worried at the Sikh reaction in such delicate and explosive situation. As an activist engaged in national reconstruction and unity for half a century and being a well wisher of Sikh community I am hesitating in saying that if reactive armed action by Sikhs is even partly true then they have not been able to evaluate the situation correctly and comprehensively and as a result could not respond according to the situation. Here I wish to draw the attention of all my countrymen including Sikhs that in a similar difficult situation arising out of murder of Mahatma Gandhi when in the hysteria against the RSS crimes of destruction of property, heinous burning alive of children, inhuman cruelty etc. were being committed and the news was reaching Nagpur from all over India, then the ‘dictator’ of the RSS known as the so-called big private army, the then head of the Sangh late M.S. Golwalkar issued an appeal in Nagpur on February 1, 1948 to the lakhs of armed young followers throughout the country in the following unforgettable words:

‘I direct all my Swayamsewak brothers that despite spread of provocation due to lack of understanding, they should adopt cordial attitude towards all and remember that this mutual distrust and improper hysteria is the result of the love and respect that the whole country has for Mahatma who made the country great in the eyes of the world. We salute such great respected departed soul’.

These were not empty words to hide cowardice and helplessness in the hopeless situation. In those life threatening serious moments he proved that every word of his appeal had a meaning. On the evening of February 1, hundreds of Swayamsewaks in Nagpur urged for armed resistance and resisting till the last drop of their blood to stop the probable attack on their leader the same night. And some associates of Guruji told him of a conspiracy against his life and requested to shift his residence to a safe place before the attack, Guruji told them in such a black moment also that if the same people whom he had truly and with full ability, served throughout his life wanted to take his life, then why and for whom he should save his life. Thereafter he cautioned them in stern voice that even if a drop of blood of his countrymen was shed in saving him, then such a life would be useless for him. History is a witness that lakhs of Swayamsewaks spread throughout the country followed this directive word by word. Though they had to digest vulgarities in exchange of their patience and tolerance but there was a faith to give them patience that whatever may happen to them in present condition, history will definitely prove them innocent.

I hope that in present difficult situation my Sikh brothers will also show the above-referred patience and tolerance. But I am deeply pained to know that rather than displaying such tolerance and patience at some places they have retaliated against the crowd with arms and played into the hands of such selfish elements who were eager to spread the trouble. I am surprised how a section of our society considered to be most disciplined, organized and religious, adopted such a negative and self-defeating attitude. May be they could not get proper leadership at the moments of such a crisis. Through my scanty study and understanding of Sikh history I consider that such a nonpolitical reaction of Sikhs in moments of such a crisis came from their complete involvement with teachings of love, tolerance and sacrifice of Sikh nature. Warrior nature of Sikh religion was a short time provision against barbarity of foreign Mughals which was taught by tenth Guru. For him Khalsa was a relatively small part of a broad Hindu-Sikh brotherhood and was designed as an armed hand to defend Hindu community and its traditions. Guru Govind Singh laid down for Khalsa followers five KS (Kesh, Kripan, Kangha, Kara and Kachha) and ‘Singh’ in the name of Khalsas. This was a symbol of their being soldiers. But unfortunately today these only are being projected as basic and necessary forms of Sikh religion.

I am sorry to say that Sikh intellectuals too have failed to understand that conversion of Sikh religion into Khalsaism is a much later event and this was due to deliberate plan of British imperialists to divide and rule in Punjab. Its aim was to cut the Sikhs off from their Hindu environ. Unfortunately, after independence power hungry politicians kept alive for their own interest the unnaturally born problems of separation and equal existence, and carried forward the game of imperialists to divide and rule by their vote bank politics. This improper equating of Sikhs with militant Khalsaism is not only the basic root of separatist tendencies in some parts of Sikh community, but it also raised militancy and faith in the power of weapons to the level of religious worship.

This religious worship gave rise to terrorist movement like Babbar Khalsa in the second decade and recently Indira Gandhi was killed as a result of
terrorist wave under the leadership of Bhindrawale and a long ‘hit list’ is yet to be executed.

I used to imagine that Sikh community has freed itself totally from illiteracy, ignorance, frustration and defeatism in which it was in the fifth decade of 19th century after losing its freedom and which was exploited by cunning British imperialists and selfish Sikh elites for their selfish interests. It is clear that in eighth decade Sikhs adorning the places of high responsibility represent highly educated, laborious, vigilant, relatively rich, enlightened and active section of Indian society in every walk of life. In nineteenth century their experiences and vision was limited to the boundaries of the then Punjab but today they are spread not only throughout India but throughout the world, and they are in a situation to directly know the conspiracies of big powers which are being hatched against independent and united India rising strongly in the world. In such an advantageous situation they should know their historical development as an integral part of India.

Such a revaluation of history will give them the opportunity to see many wrong formulations of their own religion and past which has been systematically drilled into their brains by wrong and distorted historical writings by British administrators and intellectuals about nature and development of their religion. Such an attempt will take them to their real roots.

This is the time that our Sikh brothers should search their hearts so that they can get rid of the false description inserted by British imperialists and power greedy opportunist people into their basic religious nature. Removal of such false descriptions is necessary to bridge the gulf of distrust and alienation between two communities of similar destiny, nature and similar traditions. I am afraid that without such a self-introspection and revaluation of history they would not be able to live with peace among themselves and with other countrymen. A disinterested analysis of their own enlightened interests will be enough to make them understand that their fate is indivisibly linked with the destiny of India. Such an understanding will save them from falling prey to the disruptive and destructive interests of foreign powers.

I disbelieve (sic) that my Sikh brothers will accept the cautious words of spiritual expression of a well-wisher.

Lastly, it is not to deny the truth that sudden removal of Indira Gandhi from Indian political scene has created a dangerous void in the Indian common life. But India has always displayed a characteristic inner strength in the moments of such crisis and uncertainty. According to our traditions, responsibility of power has been placed on the inexperienced shoulders of relatively young person in a lively and peaceful manner. It will be hasty to judge the potentialities of his leadership at this time. We should give him some time to show his ability.

On such challenging juncture of the country, in the meanwhile he is entitled to get full cooperation and sympathy from the countrymen, though they may belong to any language, religion, caste or political belief.

In the capacity of a nonpolitical constructive worker I only hope and pray that God bless him with more mature, balanced, inner strength and ability to give an impartial Govt. to the people so that he can take the country to real prosperous unity and glory.

Guru Nanak Divas
November 8, 1984
Nana Deshmukh

PUBLIC MEETING ON BINAYAK SEN

2009-03-10T08:33:00.001+05:30

Free Binayak Sen!

Date: Tuesday, 10 March 2009.
Time: 7.00 p.m.
Venue: SOAS main building (room 4421), Thornaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC IX 0XG

Speakers: Professor Ilina Sen (feminist scholar, human rights activist, wife of Binayak Sen); Kavita Srivastava (People's Union For Civil Liberties, India); Ramesh Gopalakrishnan (Amnesty International) ; Professor Jonathan Parry (London School of Economics); Mike Marqusee (writer, activist).

Binayak Sen, doctor and civil rights activist, has been in prison since 14 May 2007, when he was arrested under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (which allows arrest up to 90 days without charge) on suspicion of 'involvement' with Maoist insurgents. The mineral-rich central Indian state of Chhattisgarh has seen massive forced displacement of adivasi (tribal) people to make way for the exploitation of resources by private companies in recent years. In this context, a civil war-like situation has emerged in the state, marked by brutal conflict between the state and the Maoists, who control significant stretches of territory. Binayak and Ilina Sen have been campaigning for human rights in Chhattisgarh for many years, and have been outspoken opponents of the Salwa Judum, a state-sponsored paramilitary terror initiative, which has involved arming local people 'against Maoists' and thus unleashing even deeper strife in the state. Soon after helping expose police involvement in the killing of 12 tribal people on 31 March 2007, Binayak Sen was targeted and imprisoned. His applications for bail have repeatedly been rejected by Indian courts.

Sen is nationally and globally known for his work in community health. In 1983, he was instrumental in setting up the community-based Shaheed Hospital for mine-workers, and, later, was a member of the state advisory committee initating community-based health programmes across the state. Recently, while in jail, he was awarded the Jonathan Mann Award by the Global Health Council for his work with impoverished communities and his commitment to human rights.

Sen's advocacy and activism, in the fields of both health and civil rights, have been a persistent thorn in the side of the Chhattisgarh government and, at a deeper level, the Indian state and its neo-liberal agenda. The embarrassingly flimsy 'evidence' on which he was arrested was his visits to a Maoist leader in jail, visits he had undertaken as state general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, to provide medical and legal assistance, with the full knowledge and permission of the jail authorities. It is impossible to see his arrest, and the continued refusal of bail, as anything other than a very deliberate attempt by the state to thwart dissidence expressed in any form, and to avert uncomfortable questions about its role and agenda.

KILLINGS OF TRIBALS AT GOLLAPALLI PS AND STATEMENT OF HON'BLE CM OF Chhattisgarh on the floor of the house

2009-01-15T22:29:00.003+05:30

SOURCE-TRIBAL WELFARE

I would like to pick up the relevant portion from the address of the Hon'ble Chief Minister, made on the floor of the house, I quote :|

"Salwa Judum is the answer to get rid of the naxal menace in the state and made it clear that it would end only after the end of naxalism in the state".

The statement is made at that point of time, when innocent tribals were being killed and their property was looted by the Salwa Judum actors for the only fault of that those tribals refused to be part of the Salwa Judum militia.

I raise the following to discuss the issue:

Ø There is no doubt that Naxals are having their strong presence in the state of Chhattisgarh. 14 out of 18 districts of Chhattisgarh are in the grip of naxal related problems

Ø When the Chief Minister says on the floor of the house that "Salwa Judum is the answer to get rid of the naxal menace in the state" and made it clear that "it would end only after the end of naxalism in the state"

I would like to ask few simple questions to the Hon'ble Chief Minister.

1. Right to life and Right to own property is the constitutional rights of the citizens of India. No body is empowered to deny those rights nor can play mischief with it.

2. It is the duty of the state to protect the lives and p

properties of the citizens irrespective of caste, creed or

religion, poor or rich.

3. Now, when the Chief Minister says that Salwa Judum is

the answer to get rid of Naxal menace, he directly

agrees that his police force has proved to be the failure

to tackle naxal menace and now depend on the Salwa

Judum which has proved that it is nothing less than a

milit ia organization.

4. Chief Minister has confirmed on the floor of the house that Salwa Judum is the answer to the Naxal menace, and then the question arises,

Ø What is so special at Datewada that the state is behind the tribals to force them to fight with Naxals in the name of Salwa Judum?

Ø Why at Dantewada area only and not any where else in the state?

Ø Is it because the largest investor of the country i.e. House of Tatas have interest in those areas for mining of iron ores?

Ø Is it a mere coincidence that immediately within less than 24 hours of inking the MoU with the Tata Iron and Steel Company on 4^th of June, 2005, Salwa Judum began at Kutru Police Station area on 5^th of June, 2005?????

The recent killings of tribals at Singavaram under the Golapalli Police Station area in the district of Dantewada have pulled off the veil from the face of the administration about the truth of Salwa Judum. Those tribals were forced to desert their villages and join the Salwa Judum forces, ended with the looting of their property and killing 17 of them when they denied to do so.

Height of the tragedy is that while the Salwa Judum is on looting and killing spree, Hon'ble Chief Minister glorifies them on the floor of the house.

What is now needed to take strong and drastic action against the injustices done to the tribals of Bastar in the name of cleansing naxalites. To cleanse naxalites from the soil of the state is the job of the state and not the innocent tribals. Why they should be forced to do so and why they are forced to pay heavy price for their refusal to join the state sponsored Salwa Judum militia needs answer.

It is pity to see that congress party even as an opposition party has failed to perform their role. Though they have 38 MLAs against 50 of the BJP party, they are proving to be inefficient lot more particularly in the matter of raising and and supportingg the people when they need them the most. They need to learn lessons from Ms. Mamta Banerjee whose Trinamul Congress has only 30 MLAs in the house against the mammoth 235 MLAs from the left but Mamata is making them on the run even in a small issue that pertains to the injutices caused to the people. Singur and Nandigram has resulted in throwing out CPM party out from almost all the Panchayats and now have MLAs also in both the areas. The recent by election has been won by her party with a margin of 40,000 votes on a seat that fell vacant by the death of the CPM MLA. People have supported her because she supported them in the hour of their need and pushed out the left parties from even their strong holds.

Pravin Patel

Tribal ministry wants say in climate change forums

2009-01-05T23:19:00.000+05:30

Creating a piquant position, the tribal affairs minister has ended up questioning the government's stand on acknowledging the rights

of ‘indigenous people' in international forums while demanding that his ministry's opinions on climate change should also be taken into consideration.

FULL STORY

'THE JEWS', BY GANDHI - FROM HARIJAN, NOVEMBER 26, 1938

2009-01-03T22:20:00.002+05:30

Several letters have been received by me asking me to declare my views about the Arab-Jew question in Palestine and the persecution of the Jews in Germany. It is not without hesitation that I venture to offer my views on this very difficult question.

My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa. Some of them became life-long companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age-long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close. Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my sympathy for the Jews.

But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.

The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French. If the Jews have no home but Palestine, will they relish the idea of being forced to leave the other parts of the world in which they are settled? Or do they want a double home where they can remain at will? This cry for the national home affords a colourable justification for the German expulsion of the Jews.

But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old never went so mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which any inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter. The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province.

But if there can be no war against Germany, even for such a crime as is being committed against the Jews, surely there can be no alliance with Germany. How can there be alliance between a nation which claims to stand for justice and democracy and one which is the declared enemy of both? Or is England drifting towards armed dictatorship and all it means?

Germany is showing to the world how efficiently violence can be worked when it is not hampered by any hypocrisy or weakness masquerading as humanitarianism. It is also showing how hideous, terrible and terrifying it looks in its nakedness.

Can the Jews resist this organised and shameless persecution? Is there a way to preserve their self-respect, and not to feel helpless, neglected and forlorn? I submit there is. No person who has faith in a living God need feel helpless or forlorn. Jehovah of the Jews is a God more personal than the God of the Christians, the Mussalmans or the Hindus, though as a matter of fact in essence, He is common to all and one without a second and beyond description. But as the Jews attribute personality to God and believe that He rules every action of theirs, they ought not to feel helpless. If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German may, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this, I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance but would have confidence that in the end the rest are bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy which no number of resolutions of sympathy passed in the world outside Germany can. Indeed, even if Britain, France and America were to declare hostilities against Germany, they can bring no inner joy, no inner strength. The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the godfearing, death has no terror. It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep.

It is hardly necessary for me to point out that it is easier for the Jews than for the Czechs to follow my prescription. And they have in the Indian satyagraha campaign in South Africa an exact parallel. There the Indians occupied precisely the same place that the Jews occupy in Germany. The persecution had also a religious tinge. President Kruger used to say that the white Christians were the chosen of God and Indians were inferior beings created to serve the whites. A fundamental clause in the Transvaal constitution was that there should be no equality between the whites and coloured races including Asiatics. There too the Indians were consigned to ghettos described as locations. The other disabilities were almost of the same type as those of the Jews in Germany. The Indians, a mere handful, resorted to satyagraha without any backing from the world outside or the Indian Government. Indeed the British officials tried to dissuade the satyagrahis is from their contemplated step. World opinion and the Indian Government came to their aid after eight years of fighting. And that too was by way of diplomatic pressure not of a threat of war.

But the Jews of Germany can offer satyagraha under infinitely better auspices than the Indians of South Africa. The Jews are a compact, homogeneous community in Germany. They are far more gifted than the Indians of South Africa. And they have organised world opinion behind them. I am convinced that if someone with courage and vision can arise among them to lead them in non-violent action, the winter of their despair can in the twinkling of an eye be turned into the summer of hope. And what has today become a degrading man-hunt can be turned into a calm and determined stand offered by unarmed men and women possessing the strength of suffering given to them by Jehovah. It will be then a truly religious resistance offered against the godless fury of dehumanised man. The German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German gentiles in the sense that they will have converted the latter to an appreciation of human dignity. They will have rendered service to fellow-Germans and proved their title to be the real Germans as against those who are today dragging, however unknowingly, the German name into the mire.

And now a word to the Jews in Palestine. I have no doubt that they are going about it in the wrong way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart. The same God rules the Arab heart who rules the Jewish heart. They can offer satyagraha in front of the Arabs and offer themselves to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea without raising a little finger against them. They will find the world opinion in their favour in their religious aspiration. There are hundreds of ways of reasoning with the Arabs, if they will only discard the help of the British bayonet. As it is, they are co-shares with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them.

I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regarded as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.

Let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home including Palestine not by aggression but by loving service. A Jewish friend has sent me a book called The Jewish Contribution to Civilisation by Cecil Roth. It gives a record of what the Jews have done to enrich the world`s literature, art, music, drama, science, medicine, agriculture, etc. Given the will, the Jew can refuse to be treated as the outcaste of the West, to be despised or patronised. He can command the attention and respect of the world by being man, the chosen creation of God, instead of being man who is fast sinking to the brute and forsaken by God. They can add to their many contributions the surpassing contribution of non-violent action.

Woman of steel

2009-01-03T21:38:00.001+05:30

Using her pen to fight for displaced tribals and to expose corruption, Dayamani Barla could teach even Mahendra Singh Dhoni a lesson or two about how to fight back…

FULL STORY

It’s a horrible life...............

2008-12-29T22:41:00.000+05:30

KHAMMAM: Jogiah was a happy man. A more or less prosperous farmer with five acres in his name, a caring wife and three pretty children at home, life seemed wonderful. But that was all so long ago.‘‘Life couldn’t be any worse than this. I can hardly feed my children. I wish I had died,’’ he sobs, signs of a defeated man writ large on his face.Madivi Jogiah, was a resident of Bejji village in Chhattisgarh which hit the headlines three years ago when over 25 policemen were killed in a landmine blast triggered by Naxalites.

FULL STORY

Humanitarian Tragedy In Sri Lanka

2008-12-24T09:52:00.001+05:30

Sri Lankan President Rajapaksha has said that the Government has created a humanitarian corridor for some 280,000 Tamils sandwiched between the two conflicting sides. The un-told suffering of the Tamil civilians is sadly some thing that hardly ever grabs the headline of the world news. The question is how many more need to die? Every one wants to talk about terrorism of the one side but if the President is so interested in the welfare of the Tamil citizens he could halt the war today. Stop all the aerial bombing. Create conditions for all these Tamils to evacuate the so-called battle zone.

Having said that, let us not forget, during this Christmas season, when we talk about the Christ-child not offered a place in the inn. Later his parents with this child having to flee to Egypt as a refugee escaping "State terror" so to speak…One must not forget, Rajapaksha's "battle zone" is the home-land of thousands of Internally Displaced Tamils…What is the guarantee that these Tamils will not be bombed or shot down as they flee through this so-called humanitarian corridor? Is there an international body that is monitoring this movement? Is there a safe haven, a city of refuge created for these Tamils? To all these questions: Shamefully, No is the answer.

FULL STORY

Follow Up to yesterdays Post.........

2008-12-14T22:08:00.007+05:30

Who will take moral responsibilty for destroying the above family by killing the daughter and father of the house?The Police who killed them will never take the responsibility nor will the BJP Government of Chhattisgarh?So that leaves only the Maoist.............

Innocent Father Daughter killed recently by Police in Bastar in the name of killing naxalites...

2008-12-13T23:24:00.003+05:30

details to be provided soon (Hindi news can be seen on www.dailychhattisgarh.com of 12 dec 08)

At last media reporting farmer suicides in Chhattisgarh which the BJP government was able to hide successfully....

2008-12-13T22:23:00.002+05:30

Worst-affected States

Yet again, the five worst-affected States — Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh — account for two-thirds of all such suicides in the country. Together, they saw 11,026 in 2007.

Of these, Maharashtra alone accounted for over 38 per cent. Of the “Big five,” Andhra Pradesh saw a decline of 810 suicides against its 2006 total.

Full News from Hindu

Police Atrocity in Jharkhand: High-voltage stir in Dumka

2008-12-08T22:17:00.003+05:30

BIRSA's Media cell has just posted a short film onto YouTube. It
provides information about an act of police brutality committed in
Jharkhand, India yesterday. Please watch the post and circulate it to
all those whom you think would be interested.

Jharkhand having a tribal Chief Minister Shibu Soren,wonder why is he quiet at the death of innocent tribal people who recently had said at Jamshedpur that Tata Industries stinks because they are killer of t tribal people??May be Tata forgot to send Soren his monthly cut........

video link

Why do we need reserved seat during elections??

2008-11-24T10:44:00.002+05:30

(RECEIVED VIA EMAIL)

I am a proud Indian but I doubt that I would continue to feel like this if the people running our country keep using us as a commodity....

Recently I was in Bastar during the State Assembly Elections and it was very sad to see that an election which was being held in a Schedule 5 area to choose a tribal leader was completely in the hands of non-tribals of that particular area...

Maybe my community has been enslaved for so many years that when these anti-social elements visit tribal villages they are given utmost respect by referring them as Seth/Babu/Sir....

These Seth/Babu/Sir controlled their lives so much that they blindly believe in them...

Its very obvious that nobody sincerely wants to change the lives of the Adivasi otherwise 60 years of independence and both Congress and BJP has done nothing to empower us....

And Naxalites,they have been in Bastar for nearly 30 years but what have they done?Their presence has made it easier for Anti-Adivasi Organisations to start things like "Salwa Judum" to displace us from our homeland and give free licence to kill innocent tribal in the name of naxalite....and those survive are languishing in jails .Some of the boys and girls put in jail in the name of naxalism are not even 18.....

With the prevailing system do you think that the Adivasis have any future in this country??

US Plans To Muscle In On Russia's Turf

2008-11-21T23:15:00.001+05:30

The recent US/Israeli attempt to foment war with Russia in South Ossetia, and the upcoming “testing” of Obama are acts of desperation by a fading global empire. The American era is over. All that remains is the dispensation of America’s remaining nuclear resources in such a way as to reap the greatest advantage for America’s corporate owners in the great repositioning that is now taking place.

The loud sucking sound you hear is the great vacuum of corporate ownership passing over our heads, as it gathers our last remaining resources to its soulless center. The inhuman parasite class feeds off of the rest of the world and the world does nothing to rid itself of this disease.

FULL STORY

Nepal of November 2006.... Wonder how it must be now??

2008-11-21T06:45:00.007+05:30

All the above photos were taken from mobile phone since it was the only item left with battery back-up.

Two small torches were used to put light on the face since there was no power in this part of Nepal.

I wonder whether things have changed since the maoist have come to power??

Farmer suicide on the rise in Chhattisgarh -"Vidarbha in making"

2008-11-21T06:15:00.002+05:30

Six months ago, Bahur Singh's son, Santosh, took poison after his watermelon crop failed.

A small farmer in Ghoradi village in Mahasamund district, he was steeped in debt. Paralysed and unable to move, an angry Bahur Singh said the government refused to acknowledge Santosh's suicide, let alone help.

"My son died because he drank something; no one has done anything," he said.

FULL STORY

Video Link of debate on Globlisation.....

2008-09-26T00:45:00.002+05:30

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4343898391323537541&ei=Csm0SPylDI7wqgL894jeDA&q=global+imbalance&hl=en

copy and paste the above link to your browser

Spiritual guru offers to mediate between government, Maoists

2008-09-19T23:43:00.003+05:30

Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Thursday offered to mediate between Maoist rebels and the Chhattisgarh government.

Shankar, who is founder of the Art of Living Foundation, said: 'I am ready to mediate between Maoists and the government for finding a solution to Maoist violence.' He was speaking at a function at Jagdalpur town, the regional headquarters of Bastar region.

Maoists have been running a de facto administration since early 1980s in the mineral rich forested interiors of Bastar region spread out in about 40,000 sq km of state's southern region.

'I call upon Maoists to shun violence. I know they (Maoists) are not too bad but most unfortunate thing is they have been using guns and shedding bloods which is not fair,' he said in the presence of several leaders including Baliram Kashyap, MP from Bastar.

He added that there is a possibility to find a solution to Maoist violence through constitutional means.

FULL STORY

‘Development is hijacked by multinationals’

2008-09-19T23:43:00.001+05:30

How do you see the ongoing agitations for land in various states?

Struggle for land is a major issue in various states. Despite 60 years since Independence, the governments have not been able to solve the problem. A major portion of the land in the country is still with a handful of mighty people. And the number of poor, landless persons throughout the country is increasing by the day. Dalits, tribals and other marginalised sections are the victims of this issue. Simultaneously, the struggle for land has converted itself into a political issue in several states. In West Bengal, Kerala, Orissa, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, the land issue has now come to occupy centre stage.

Does the dispossession of people for developmental activities also pose a challenge?

In the name of development, governments forcibly acquire land from the people. For creating expressways and highways, people have been evacuated from their ancestral land. With new roads, the number of vehicles will also go up exponentially. To meet the demand for more vehicles, motor companies have to perpetually identify land for new vehicle production units. Peasants are being forcibly evacuated from their cultivable land. The increasing demand for fuel has also become an issue for farmers. In a move to resolve the fuel crisis, state governments and other agencies are trying to find out alternative fuels like Jetropha. In Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, large areas have been used to cultivate Jetropha. With this, farmers have lost the land which rightfully belongs to them.

COMPLETE INTERVIEW

Stop burning Ravana effigy in Bastar since its against Bastar- Tradtion............

2008-09-18T11:19:00.002+05:30

Breaking a tradition since the creation of Jharkhand in 2000, Chief Minister Shibu Soren has refused to burn an effigy of demon king Ravana, saying he was a "great scholar".

In north India, Ravana's effigy is burnt on Vijay Dashmi, marking the end of Dusshera celebration and considered to symbolise victory of good over evil.

A delegation of Punjabi and Hindu Biradari (PHB) met Soren Monday and requested him to accept the invitation to burn the effigy of Ravana at Morabadi ground on Vijay Dashmi.

FULL STORY

Subsidies, tax breaks got Tata to Singur

2008-09-14T08:11:00.001+05:30

The agreement between Tata Motors and the government of West Bengal to
manufacture the world's cheapest car in the state involved much more
than subsidies on land and interest paid on bank loans.

The government worked out a package — which included tax paybacks and
concessional power — to match the benefits the plant would have
enjoyed in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, both designated backward
areas that attracted central tax concessions.

The documents, which the West Bengal government released today, show
that the state government will provide to Tata Motors a loan of Rs 200
crore at 1 per cent interest per year repayable in five equal annual
installments starting from the 21st year of the date of disbursement
of loan.

If the state had put the sum in a fixed deposit scheme, its principal
would be worth Rs 3,000 crore in 20 years.

Read More

Singur highlights rise of civil society movements in India

2008-09-10T17:12:00.002+05:30

Tata Motors decision to suspend work indefinitely in Singur underlines the rise of civil society movements in the last decade in the context of land acquisition by industry aided by government, and more recently in the context of the SEZ Act.

And in almost all cases, the movements tend to echo and support one another in demanding repeal of both Land Acquisition and SEZ Acts. The villain in most movements appears to be the political leadership, which is seen as colluding with the industry, whether it is in Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra or Jharkhand.

The victory of civil society organisations in Singur has meant reaffirmation of other movements against the Tatas, with organisations now hoping for gains in other pending projects of Tata Steel, like the Rs 2,000 crore project in Kalinga Nagar in Orissa, another in Saraikela in Jharkhand, and a 5,000 acre mining project in Lohandiguda in Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh.

The oldest movement against land acquisition and displacement of communities in Kalinga Nagar began in 1999 and continues under the Jana Sangram Samiti along with a movement against Utkal Alumina in Kashipur in Orissa.

COMPLETE ARTICLE

Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda- uranium waste

2008-09-07T17:17:00.003+05:30

Must Watch

copy and paste the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fp_J2W10dU

Hindutva's Violent History

2008-09-07T10:31:00.001+05:30

Hindutva's production of culture and nation is often marked by savagery. On 23 August 2008, Lakshmanananda Saraswati, Orissa's Hindu nationalist icon, was murdered with four disciples in Jalespeta in Kandhamal district. State authorities alleged the attackers to be Maoists (and a group has subsequently claimed the murder). But the Sangh Parviar held the Christian community responsible, even though there is no evidence or history to suggest the armed mobilisation of Christian groups in Orissa.

After the murder, the All India Christian Council stated: “The Christian community in India abhors violence, condemns all acts of terrorism, and opposes groups of people taking the law into their own hands”. Gouri Prasad Rath, General Secretary, VHPOrissa, stated: “Christians have killed Swamiji. We will give a befitting reply. We would be forced to opt for violent protests if action is not taken against the killers”.

Following which, violence engulfed the district. Churches and Christian houses razed to the ground, frightened Christians hiding in the jungles or in relief camps. Officials record the death toll at 13, local leaders at 20, while the Asian Centre for Human Rights noted 50.

The Sangh’s history in postcolonial Orissa is long and violent. Virulent Hindutva campaigns against minority groups reverberated in Rourkela in 1964, Cuttack in 1968 and 1992, Bhadrak in 1986 and 1991, Soro in 1991. The Kandhamal riots were not unforeseen.

Since 2000, the Sangh has been strengthened by the Bharatiya Janata Party's coalition government with the Biju Janata Dal. In October 2002, a Shiv Sena unit in Balasore district declared the formation of the first Hindu ‘suicide squad’. In March 2006, Rath stated that the “VHP believes that the security measures initiated by the Government [for protection of Hindus] are not adequate and hence Hindu society has taken the responsibility for it.”

The VHP has 1,25,000 primary workers in Orissa. The RSS operates 6,000 shakhas with a 1,50,000 plus cadre. The Bajrang Dal has 50,000 activists working in 200 akharas. BJP workers number above 4,50,000. BJP Mohila Morcha, Durga Vahini (7,000 outfits in 117 sites), and Rashtriya Sevika Samiti (80 centres) are three major Sangh women's organisations. BJP Yuva Morcha, Youth Wing, Adivasi Morcha and Mohila Morcha have a prominent base. Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh manages 171 trade unions with a cadre of 1,82,000. The 30,000-strong Bharatiya Kisan Sangh functions in 100 blocks. The Sangh also operates various trusts and branches of national and international institutions to aid fundraising, including Friends of Tribal Society, Samarpan Charitable Trust, Sookruti, Yasodha Sadan, and Odisha International Centre. Sectarian development and education are carried out by Ekal Vidyalayas, Vanavasi Kalyan Ashrams/Parishads (VKAs), Vivekananda Kendras, Shiksha Vikas Samitis and Sewa Bharatis — cementing the brickwork for hate and civil polarisation.

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Article in Hindi on Tata atrocities in Singur..

2008-09-06T22:55:00.001+05:30

आज सुबह के अखबारों में दो खबरें पढ़ीं. बाटा उद्योग के संस्थापक तथा कथित भारत मित्र थॉमस बाटा का टोरंटो में निधन हो गया. सिंगूर में रतन टाटा को अपनी लखटकिया कार नैनो के कारखाने पर ताला जड़ना पड़ा. बचपन में पढ़ी बेधड़क (या शायद बेढब) बनारसी की पंक्तियां उभर आईं- “देश में जूता चला, मशहूर बाटा हो गया / देश में लोहा गला, मशहूर टाटा हो गया / योजनाएं यूं चलीं, जैसे छिनालों की जबान / हम जमा करते रहे, खाते में घाटा हो गया”

मेरे मित्र अशोक वाजपेयी और राजेन्द्र मिश्र ऐसे कवियों को कवि नहीं मानते लेकिन ये पंक्तियां कितनी मौजू हैं. बाटा के जूतों की हालत थॉमस बाटा के गिरते स्वास्थ्य की तरह होती गई है. बाटा की फैक्टरी के मजदूरों के साथ कलकत्ता में ही बहुत अन्याय हुआ है. फिर भी बाटा भारत में कुछ प्रसिध्द अंग्रेजी कंपनियों ए.एच. व्हीलर, कॉलगेट और ब्रिटेनिया की तरह मशहूर और स्वीकार्य तो रहे हैं.

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SINGUR-SO MUCH FOR A SMALL CAR BY RATAN TATA

2008-09-05T23:42:00.013+05:30

After Singur its Lohndiguda in Bastar for Tata-Double trouble for the Tata's

2008-09-02T21:46:00.003+05:30

*SC issued notices against TISCO, Essar Projects in Chhattisgarh*
*9/2/2008*

The Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre, Chhattisgarh government,
TISCO and ESSAR Steel Chhattisgarh Limited on a petition seeking
cancellation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the state
government with the top two steel giants for setting up of iron, steel and
power projects in the state.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam
issued notices after hearing the counsel for the petitioner, who contended
that the interests of the state have been compromised and if the MoU's dated
June 4, 2005 and July 5, 2005 signed with TISCO and ESSAR respectively were
not quashed, it would cause huge losses to the state exchequer.

Petitioner Sudiep Shrivastava also alleged that the royalty rates for iron
ore have been fixed at meagre rate of Rs 4 to Rs 27 per tonne while the
market rate of iron ore was around Rs 2000 per tonne.

The concept of competitiveness, fair play, transparency and public interest
have been thrown to winds and the royalty rates have been fixed hardly at
one per cent of the market vale.

The petitioner has further alleged that even the Public Sector Undertakings
(PSUS) have been ignored in order to provide land and other infrastructure
to these two favourite companies at throwaway prices.

The petitioner has challenged the Chhattisgarh High Court judgement dated
September 7, 2006 vide which the PIL of the petitioner was dismissed.

'Salwa Judam victims' narrate tales of "Torture"........

2008-08-29T19:48:00.001+05:30

HYDERABAD: For the last three years, Jagan (name changed) says he has tried hard to shrug off the memory of that one afternoon when many villagers were kicked from one end of a bridge to another "like a football."

"Their clothes were torn, their bones broken. Men, women, children.. there were all thrashed in the same way," he recollects the last few days he spent in his village Bhorguda in Chhattisgarh. Staring at the floor as if searching for a reason for the sudden atrocity in his otherwise peaceful village, he says it was perhaps because the villagers had refused to attend a Salwa Judam meeting.

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Orissa Burning...........

2008-08-29T19:38:00.004+05:30

Why people don't talk about the conversion being done by the "Sangh Parivar" ( RSS , VHP) of the indigenous people?

Why only blame the Christian Missionaries?

When a Supreme Court ruling also says that the tribal are not Hindus and that they have their own God/Goddess then the work done by agencies like "Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram","Gayatri Peeth","Radha Swami" etc is unconstitutional because their sole aim on working in tribal areas is to convert them to Hinduism.

Why no body talks about the conversion being done by the "Hindutva Brigades"???

Why should an indigenous person die because of the fight between the "Hindutva Brigades" and the "Missionaries"??

MUST READ

Press release on leak of NHRC report on Salwa Judum

2008-08-28T08:10:00.002+05:30

NHRC LEAK CASTS DOUBT ON IMPARTIALITY AND INDEPENDENCE OF INVESTIGATION

On 15 April 2008, the Supreme Court asked the NHRC to
investigate human rights violations by the Salwa Judum and make available its
report within two months. The NHRC filed its report on August 26th
in a sealed envelope to the Court. NHRC officials have consistently told the
petitioners that they would not divulge any details of the report and the
report could only be obtained from the Court. We have not yet seen the report.

However, on the morning of August 26th, Economic
Times published a report by the reporter Devesh Kumar headlined, NHRC
gives thumbs-up to Salwa Judum movement. This
was subsequently reproduced in the Chhattisgarh newspapers. According to Kumar,
to whom I spoke on the phone this morning, he definitely did not get the
report from the NHRC but somewhere else. This can only be from one of the
respondents, either the Government of India or the Government of Chhattisgarh.

The leaking of the report to Economic Times clearly
amounts to contempt of court. More disturbingly, the fact that the report was
most likely leaked by the respondents -
who should not have been in possession of a copy - casts into doubt the impartiality
and independence of the NHRC.

This, perhaps even more than the report itself, is a great
tragedy for the country, since it shows that the separation of powers and
independence that our constitution enshrines is not working.

I am enclosing a letter written to NHRC on May 30,
expressing the petitioners apprehensions about the NHRCs investigation
process, in which the Chhattisgarh police and administration were fully involved. If the ET report is to be believed, our concerns were fully justified.

Nandini Sundar
(on behalf of the
petitioners)

30 May 2008

Justice Rajendra Babu
Chairperson
National Human Rights
Commission
Copernicus Marg
New Delhi

Dear Justice Rajendra Babu

We are writing to express our concern at the procedures
adopted by the NHRC investigation team in the matter of WP (Civil) 250 of 2007 and WP (Cr) 119 of 2007. The credibility of the NHRC is under threat, which is a matter of serious concern since the only defence of the rule of law against extremism is independent impartial institutions.

As petitioners, on the basis of whose application the
enquiry was constituted, we are grieved that we have not been allowed adequate opportunity to represent our side of the case.
On the other hand, the police and administration in Chhattisgarh have
been given every opportunity to influence the investigation.

The presence of Salwa Judum leaders, Special Police
Officers (SPOs) and the SP of Dantewada in the armed convoy of the NHRC investigating officers, completely vitiates the possibility of an independent and impartial enquiry. As the photos taken by independent journalists who happened to be on the spot at village Polampalli show, the presence of unidentified photographers during a hearing, as well as the ubiquitous presence of the SPOs and police, serves to intimidate witnesses. In another case,village Chintalnar, the villagers have actually been threatened for deposing
before the NHRC. We fear for the safety of the others, and do not wish the NHRC investigation to turn into a source of further harassment of villagers who have already lost everything, including their loved ones. We might also mention here, that the offer by the petitioners and local NGOs to accompany the NHRC team to ensure impartiality and create an atmosphere conducive for villagers to talk, was refused.

Given that the situation is one of conflict between
Naxalites and police, with villagers caught in the middle, it is understandable that senior police officers will have security concerns in visiting the villages. Therefore, it would have been all the more advisable that a team which is perceived as neutral should have been sent. The arrival of a convoy of ten four-wheeled drives and an anti-mine tank, along with road clearing exercises which preceded the visit, is hardly calculated to instill confidence
in villagers, who are used to running away at the sight of the Salwa Judum and police at whose hands they have suffered severe trauma. The police is an implicated party in the issue (many testimonies before the Court as well as those given to the NCPCR testify to the police/paramilitary involvement in arson, rape and killings).

It may be mentioned here that the NDTV team which visited
Jagargunda camp shortly before the NHRC team, had absolutely no security problem going. They went alone without any police protection. We would also like to point out that the NHRC team which went to Andhra Pradesh got so many testimonies because they moved around freely without such overwhelming police presence.

We are further concerned at the short notice that we were
given to present our views. Despite repeated requests to be informed well in advance, I was told on the 19th morning that anyone who wished to depose could do so at Sukma on the 20th and at Cherla on the 21st. In turn I had to pass this information on to people in Dantewada. Since villages are far flung, and communications are poor,
it takes time to gather people. Naturally, people were unable to come to Sukma within the required time, denying them the opportunity of justice.

We are also concerned at the lack of effort to ensure
impartial translation, despite our repeated requests on this issue. In the hearing at Sukma, two women whose husbands were killed by SPOs in Matwada camp,said the translator was from Dantewada. He is most likely to have been a policeman, SPO or Salwa Judum person, since the NHRC team was working through the administration. Elsewhere in the base camps, the NHRC team relied on Hindi speakers in the camps to translate. This has inevitably affected the authenticity of what they heard.

In short, the NHRC investigation in Chhattisgarh has been
marred by an over reliance on the administration, involvement of SPOs and Salwa Judum leaders who are the very people whose activities were to be investigated, heavy presence of security forces, limited involvement of the petitioners, and no time given to villagers to represent their grievances before the investigating team. The situation in Andhra Pradesh, however, as we had predicted, was more conducive to villagers, though even there advance notice
was limited, and many people who would have liked to depose could not do so.

We request that the NHRC send a fresh enquiry committee of
members themselves or eminent and neutral persons to Chhattisgarh, which will hold public hearings (which are notified to us well in advance) in both Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.

We also reiterate our request that women, who understand
women in situations of conflict, be part of this team, along with people who are competent to investigate other aspects of the situation like the health and food security conditions in villages and camps.

Yours sincerely
Nandini Sundar

(on behalf of the
petitioners)

Land And Freedom- By Arundhati Roy

2008-08-24T07:18:00.002+05:30

For the past 60 days or so, since about the end of June, the people of Kashmir have been free. Free in the most profound sense. They have shrugged off the terror of living their lives in the gun-sights of half a million heavily armed soldiers, in the most densely militarised zone in the world.

After 18 years of administering a military occupation, the Indian government's worst nightmare has come true. Having declared that the militant movement has been crushed, it is now faced with a non-violent mass protest, but not the kind it knows how to manage. This one is nourished by people's memory of years of repression in which tens of thousands have been killed, thousands have been "disappeared", hundreds of thousands tortured, injured, and humiliated. That kind of rage, once it finds utterance, cannot easily be tamed, rebottled and sent back to where it came from.

A sudden twist of fate, an ill-conceived move over the transfer of 100 acres of state forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board (which manages the annual Hindu pilgrimage to a cave deep in the Kashmir Himalayas) suddenly became the equivalent of tossing a lit match into a barrel of petrol. Until 1989 the Amarnath pilgrimage used to attract about 20,000 people who travelled to the Amarnath cave over a period of about two weeks. In 1990, when the overtly Islamist militant uprising in the valley coincided with the spread of virulent Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) in the Indian plains, the number of pilgrims began to increase exponentially. By 2008 more than 500,000 pilgrims visited the Amarnath cave, in large groups, their passage often sponsored by Indian business houses. To many people in the valley this dramatic increase in numbers was seen as an aggressive political statement by an increasingly Hindu-fundamentalist Indian state. Rightly or wrongly, the land transfer was viewed as the thin edge of the wedge. It triggered an apprehension that it was the beginning of an elaborate plan to build Israeli-style settlements, and change the demography of the valley.

FULL ARTICLE

The Quiet Soldiers of Compassion

2008-08-19T22:30:00.001+05:30

EVEN IF you saturate yourself in the Amtes, day and night, you cannot entirely look their work in the eye: you turn away from the full experience of it because if you didn’t, you would be forced to confront and change your deepest self. You would need to re-examine your entire life.

But let us start at the beginning. If you drive deep into the forested heart of India, 360 kilometres away from Nagpur, you will find nothing but giant mosquitoes and thoughts for company, and occasional clusters of huts — mere lashings of damp leaf and grass. It is a beautiful country, an emerald world cut by streams and rivers, but it is so lonely, so isolated, you can almost touch its forgottenness. Six hours into this silent receding world and suddenly you come to a white arch: Lok Biradari Prakalp, Hemalkasa. Turn in and the first thing you feel is disappointment. There seems nothing here but the standard issue buildings of middle India — grey cement, green mould. It is dusk and raining hard. A wiry man in white vest and white shorts steps up.

FULL STORY

When will Bastar have their own Evo Morales????

2008-08-15T22:36:00.003+05:30

watch the video below to understand what I am trying to say

video link

Tribal story on silver screen

2008-08-15T22:31:00.001+05:30

The Niyamgiri hill issue that has kept environmentalists, industrialists, lawmakers and the government on its toes, has now captured the imagination of artists and filmmakers.

Moved by the plight of the Dongria Kondh tribals and their fight to save their sacred hill being taken over for mining, one of the ace filmmakers of the state Prashant Nanda is now ready with his first non-commercial venture, The Living Ghost.

“Tribal people have been exploited, economically, socially and politically. This time they are being exploited geographically. If vested interests succeed, we will destroy the hill and cultures closely associated with it. I wanted to capture the faith, belief and lives of tribes on the hills, before it faded away, forever,” said Nanda.

The film’s main protagonists are two young lovers Singari and Bangaru. Bangaru, according to tradition tries to arrange for money to get his love’s hand. This takes him to a local businessman where the youth is trapped in a court case. Singari comes down from the hill to save Bangaru and gets trapped in the so-called civilised world.

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CRPF terror in North Bastar....

2008-08-12T11:20:00.004+05:30

read this link from the Deshbandhu Paper

http://deshbandhu.co.in/newChhattisgarh.asp?Details=3702

The above news from Deshbandhu paper says that 2 dozen tribal from village Huchadi walked 18 kms to come to the police head-quaters at Narainpur to complain against the CRPF atrocities in front of SP Ajay Yadav.

Apart from the above incident,similar thing is happening in Village Ghoomer of Antagarh distt. and when a teacher from the village Mr.P.R.Dugga(mbl-94242-95701) along with his fellow villagers complained at the State Human Rights Commission he was dragged from him house by the CRPF,beaten up and made to sign on a stamp paper saying that he was forced to file false complaint againt the CRPF before the HRC...

This is the state of affairs in North Bastar so what if Salwa Judum is happening only in South Bastar..It is quite obvious that the police and the other forces don't won't to be left behind in looting and terrorizing the people of North Bastar as it is being done in South Bastar in the guise of Salwa Judum...

Prabhat

UN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY: SURVIVAL NAMES 'UNHOLY TRINITY'

2008-08-10T07:25:00.001+05:30

To mark the UN Day for Indigenous Peoples on 9 August, Survival
International today named its 'unholy trinity' – the three worst companies
abusing tribal peoples' rights. They are:

1. VEDANTA. This FTSE-100 company is determined to construct a bauxite mine
on the sacred hills of the Dongria Kondh tribe in Orissa, India. It has
already built a $1 billion aluminium refinery at the foot of the hills, even
though it does not yet have permission to mine. The Dongria Kondh, one of
India's most isolated tribes, are resolutely opposed to the mine, which will
destroy them as a people.

FULL STORY

World Indigenous People Day today-"Is there any state celebration/ program on this day in Chhattisgarh ? Was not the state created for its tribal ?"

2008-08-10T07:16:00.002+05:30

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous People will be celebrated on Saturday (today) the world over in a bid to strengthen the global cooperation for the solution of problems being faced by the indigenous people in such areas as culture, education, health, human rights and many others.

“We, the indigenous peoples, walk to the future in the footprints of our ancestors. From the smallest to the largest living being, from the four directions, from the air, the land and the mountains, the creator has placed us, the indigenous peoples, upon our mother, the earth,” said the Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter 1992.

The word ‘indigenous’ has many meanings. In every region of the world, many different cultural groups live together and interact, but not all of these groups are considered indigenous or inherent to their particular geographic area. In fact, it is only in the face of a collective or shared sense of identity that the term indigenous peoples has been internationally recognized.

FULL STORY

What else is the Naxal movement? asks writer U R Ananthamurthy

2008-08-08T06:51:00.001+05:30

BANGALORE: Intellectuals in Karnataka have sought intervention of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) for securing the release of farmers who were arrested in Chikkanayakanhalli , Tumkur, for protesting against illegal mining in the area.

At a meeting on Tuesday, U R Ananthamurthy , Nagathihalli Chandrashekar, P Seshadri, Krishnamurti Biligere, S G Siddaramaiah, B S Lingadevaru and Lingadevaru Halemane urged SHRC chairperson S R Nayak to seek immediate release of the farmers.

The team told Nayak that farmers were involved in and had the right to "peaceful , legitimate" protest against mining in Tumkur as it was affecting agriculture. "Miscreants set fire to equipment, but the police, on complaints by mine owners, arrested farmers. Let them arrest those responsible for the arson. The farmers should be set free as they have rights to hold peaceful protest," the team said.

FULL STORY

Alexander Solzhenitsyn On The New Russia

2008-08-07T00:29:00.002+05:30

The world has been paying its last respects to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian who exposed the horror of the Soviet prison labor camps and gave new meaning to the word "gulag."

Solzhenitsyn, who died Aug. 3 of heart failure at age 89 in Moscow, spent eight years in those camps. That experience was the basis of his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which was published in 1962 during the brief post-Stalin thaw.

Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 and three years later published his historical masterpiece, The Gulag Archipelago, which led to his expulsion and 20 years in exile. He returned to his beloved Russia only in 1994, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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